American Jews are turning their backs on the Democratic Party, claims Exodus Movement founder Elizabeth Pipko.

Speaking with The Jerusalem Post, the New York-born author, former athlete and model, 24, said that she feels many life-long Democratic Party voters are questioning their loyalty to the party and joining what she calls the sweeping #WalkAway wave, an American movement to abandon liberalism.

“The biggest trigger for people is the obvious disregard that many on the left have recently shown for antisemitic statements and actions,” Pipko said, alarming rhetoric that “only a few years ago would have been immediately condemned.”

Take for example recent statements made by Congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Ocasio Cortez and Rashida Tlaib against Israel and in favor of boycotting the Jewish state, she said.

“The BDS movement is a blatant attempt to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist,” Pipko said. “There is no place for any US elected officials to support a movement that stands against one of our closest allies and one of the freest countries in the world.”

At one point in the past, the Democrats were “not only incredibly supportive of Israel but also of Jewish people and their rights here in the United States,” she explained. But that is no longer the case, in her estimation.

“Supporting today’s Democratic party just because of its values of many years ago does not make sense,” Pipko continued. “The Democrats have changed and so should our support for them.”

Pipko published her first book at 16. As a model, she starred in international campaigns and was featured in household name magazines, including appearing on the “Social Media Stars As Authors” panel at Book Expo America. This year, she won the “Fearless Female Award” from the Batsheva organization.

It was her volunteering on Trump’s 2016 election campaign that brought to the forefront her strong convictions and she said paved the path to a political vocation.

“Trump inspired me to think for myself and not let politicians tell me what I should or shouldn’t believe in,” Pipko said. “More importantly, he supported Israel in a way I had badly hoped that a candidate would.”

Pipko went on to found the Exodus Movement (originally named Jexodus). Now, three years after joining Trump’s campaign, first as a volunteer and later as a staff member, she is regularly interviewed by Fox News and has been quoted repeatedly by the president.

In March, she appeared on Fox & Friends where she described Trump as “the best friend Jewish Americans could ask for.”

Trump responded with a tweet in which he quoted Pipko saying “Jewish people are leaving the Democratic Party. We saw a lot of anti Israel policies start under the Obama Administration, and it got worse & worse. There is anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party. They don’t care about Israel or the Jewish people. Elizabeth Pipko.”

“Look, the Democrats have shown with their words and actions over the last several years that they are taking Jews and their support totally for granted. President Trump was discussing Jewish Americans and their loyalty to themselves, their faith, and everything that we have gone through. It’s hard to imagine supporting the left when they have turned so far against us,” said Pipko.

Pipko is a former Trump 2016 campaign staffer, who made headlines earlier this year when she announced her support for President Trump, and co-founded Jexodus — now known as The Exodus Movement. According to their website, The Exodus Movement is comprised of “proud Jewish Americans who reject the hypocrisy, anti-Americanism, and anti-Semitism of the rising far-left.”

“[The Exodus Movement is] hoping to inspire Jews, and I think all people actually, to vote with their conscience and their beliefs and not with any fears whatsoever, and I think the further the Democrats shift to the left, the harder it is for any religious person to align with them,” Pipko said in an earlier Fox News interview.

“I think any Jewish people that votes for a Democrat — I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” Trump said.

The president also accused Congresswomen Tlaib and Omar of being anti-Semitic and argued they “hate” Israel and Jewish people.

“Where has the Democratic Party gone?” Trump said, adding, “Where have they gone — where they are defending these two people over the state of Israel?”

“At a time when anti-Semitic incidents have increased — due to the president’s emboldening of white nationalism — Trump is repeating an anti-Semitic trope,” Halie Soifer, the executive Director of Jewish Democratic Council of America, said in a statement.

NEW YORK, NY: Today Red Sea Rising, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit running The Exodus Movement, announces the launch of The Exodus Movement political arm via the creation of a 527 political organization. The creation of this 527 organization will allow The Exodus Movement to more aggressively target persuadable Jewish voters in key states ahead of the 2020 election.

“The creation of this 527 organization will allow The Exodus Movement to more aggressively target persuadable Jewish voters and inform them about the antisemitic drift of the Democrat party in key states ahead of the 2020 election.,” said Elizabeth Pipko, Founder and President of The Exodus Movement. “Many Jews have watched in dismay as a formerly welcoming Democratic Party has turned away from them towards anti-Semitic activists such as Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib. This new 527 organization will hold those to account who don’t support Jewish voters and the issues they care about the most.”

The 24-year-old native New Yorker told Fox News that her faith has always been a huge part of life and helped steer her when she first started modeling at 17 years old.

“Growing up I always knew that [religion] was going to guide me,” she said. “In anything that I do, I know I go with God.”

Having the approval of her parents has also been a guiding force. Pipko says there’s not a photo she’s taken that wasn’t run by her parents first.

“People were always confused that on a Thursday I could shoot a swimwear campaign and that on Friday night I could be in synagogue,” she admitted. “I’m super proud of it.”

She does have her limits though. Pipko draws the line at nude shoots or getting too intimate with another man. She married her husband in December 2018 whom she met while working on President Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Since then, Pipko has put her modeling career on hold for two reasons: 1. After coming out as a Trump supporter, she said those in the modeling industry “distanced themselves” from her and 2. She founded “The Exodus Movement” in March 2019.

“The [response from the] modeling industry was exactly what I expected. A lot of the photographers and people that I had grown super close with kind of blocked me on social media and distanced themselves,” she previously told Fox News in April.

Jewish-American voters historically vote overwhelmingly in favor of the Democratic Party, usually in the 70 to 80 percent range. Elizabeth Pipko is looking to change that.

The self-styled model and figure skater is now the face of the Exodus Movement, a group that started as “Jexodus” in March to spread a right-wing message in an attempt to sway Jewish voters towards voting red in the 2020 election.

In conversation with The Times of Israel, Pipko says that people are often stymied by her, asking if she’s been brainwashed and why she would support US President Donald Trump so staunchly. At a time when Jewish voters are disappointed in the Republican response to increasing reports of anti-Semitism, the Exodus Movement is not an easy sell.

A recent poll claims that an unprecedented number of Jewish voters feel less secure with Trump at the helm, with 59% of Jews saying they blame the Commander-in-Chief for the country’s reported rise in anti-Semitism. Further complicating things for conservatives looking to capture the Jewish vote, the survey also found that issues concerning Israel were the lowest priority among Jewish voters in 2020.

Led by Elizabeth Pipko, the movement will start with chapters in 11 states.

Some states, such as New York, will have multiple chapters based on growing interest in the movement, which seeks to convince Jewish and non-Jewish pro-Israel voters to switch to the Republican Party prior to the 2020 election.

“When we first launched, we had a sign-up page online with our email list,” Pipko told World Israel News. “A lot of people wanted to volunteer, so we contacted them in these counties and states. We also went out looking for chapter heads.

“We went to people in different states who they could recommend, who were active, connected and focused on the mission. It took three months to get it together. We’re going to take another month or so and launch the next crop of chapters,” she said.

The group, founded in March, immediately received plenty of attention and media coverage.

President Donald Trump also signaled his support for the movement in a tweet. Pipko had worked on his campaign, first as a volunteer and then as hired staff.

“Everywhere that there’s a need for it, I’m going to be there, whether it’s a group who wants me to speak or has an event,” she said. “A lot of that is on college campuses because they turned so liberal and anti-Semitic recently. I do hope to be involved with them.

“The chapters, because there are so few Jews in America, it didn’t make sense to make a college chapter program. It’s a lot bigger than that, and it’s a lot bigger than just Jews. The fight for anti-Semitism should not be just Jews. I want to grow grassroots chapters out of nothing and create big chapters.”

The movement seeks to galvanize young Jewish Americans who are afraid to speak out about their political beliefs.

Anti-Semitism has created a divide in the Democratic party. Its far-left criticism of Israel has at times crossed the line into anti-Semitism.

As I walked up to the stage to give my speech at Turning Point USA’s Young Jewish Leadership Summit earlier this week, I could only think about one thing. My grandfather’s voice was rushing through my head, almost more clearly than if he had been right there next to me; then again maybe he was.

My grandfather was the proudest Jew I had ever known. He fought with all that he had for his faith in every aspect of his life and taught me to do the same. Growing up I always wondered what he meant when he told me to “fight for my people.” I grew up in New York City, attending synagogue regularly, and loving every minute I spent in my religious Jewish school. I had no idea what it meant to fight to be a Jew. In fact, I had no idea what it meant to fight for anything.

My grandparents believed in sharing history. I was told about the holocaust regularly, and retold and retold.

As a child, thinking about the holocaust kept me up at night. My grandmother often showed me photos of concentration camps and told me stories of Jews who managed to keep their faith even in a time when it seemed impossible. This may have been just a few years ago, but clearly much has changed in such a short amount of time. The term “concentration camp” was one I was never even comfortable saying out loud. The murder of six million Jews was something I couldn’t fathom or begin to understand. This was a time when the term “concentration camp” was not thrown around for political reasons or dramatic effect, clearly a lot has changed.

I often wonder what my grandfather would be feeling and doing if he was alive today; witnessing the anti-Semitism sweeping the country which he loved so much. The country that he risked his life to escape to.

Today, we are living in a time where anti-Semitism has become mainstream. Where members of Congress make jokes and comments about Jews and their connection to money, or “Benjamins baby,” where popular celebrities make antisemitic comments and don’t have to apologize for them, and when one of the most popular newspapers in the world thinks it’s alright to publish a cartoon depicting a Jew and Israeli as a dog on a leash.

We have entered a time where synagogues now must be protected by armed guards. And as grateful as I am by the support and protection we are able to receive in America, I am terrified for the direction that we are heading in. Some days I just sit and wonder what I can do.

In these times I think to what my grandfather would tell me, I know if he was here today, he’d tell me to fight. To fight for my people and what we have been through, to fight for the country that made my freedom possible, and to fight for the young Jewish children that deserve to be brought into a world where antisemitism isn’t accepted or defended.

My grandfather often told me how important it was to stand up for what mattered, even if it meant standing alone. That is why I founded The Exodus Movement. My organization is focused on supporting Jewish Americans, fighting anti-Semitism wherever it appears, and defending Israel and its right to exist. Jewish Americans deserve more than to be taken for granted by people that continuously prove that they don’t support them, and in a time where antisemitism is clearly on the rise, I will make it my mission to make sure that Jewish Americans are never taken for granted again.

Elizabeth Pipko is a former model and 2016 Trump campaign staffer from New York City. Elizabeth is currently the founder and president of The Exodus Movement, committed to fighting the rising anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism of the far left as well as promoting the importance for support of the State of Israel.